The ambitious target of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in the UK, which includes the decarbonisation of heat and electricity, means the increase of instantaneous power from non-dispatchable renewable energy sources (RESs). The intermittency of RESs will cause stability issues for the grid resulting from the mismatch between generation from RES and load demand. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) can match loads with generation and can provide flexibility to the grid. This study is proposing the health sector as a new flexibility services provider for the grid through BESS. The health sector has large loads that run throughout the year, and by managing this load it can provide flexibility to the grid. Four different scenarios have been evaluated for a range of behind-the-meter (BTM) BESS for a hospital in the UK to provide arbitrage and ancillary services considering the option of installing a photovoltaic (PV) system. It was found that BESS would not be economically viable through arbitrage alone since the payback period was always greater than the BESS lifetime. However, bundling services by participating in the ancillary services market resulted in payback periods as low as 3.10 years for some systems, and the net present value (NPV) could reach more than £5 million. This work provides evidence that the health sector can be a significant player in the transition to a renewables-led energy system, an exemplar for other sectors, and one of the solutions to recovery from the COVID19 pandemic.

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Wind energy could be generated and captured with a storage device within the customer premises for local utilization and for the provision of various services across the electricity supply chain. To assess the benefits of adding a storage device to an electricity distribution network that has two wind turbines with a base load of 500 kW and a typical peak load under 1500 kW, a 2 MW/4 MWh storage is installed. To observe the effects of adding the storage device to the network, a technical analysis is performed using the NEPLAN 360 modelling tool while an economic analysis is carried out by estimating the likely payback period on investment. A storage potential benefit analysis suggests how changes in integration policies could affect the utility of adding the storage device. With the addition of the storage device, self-consumption of wind energy increased by almost 10%. The profitability of the project increased when the device is also deployed to provide stacked services across the electricity supply chain. Policies that permit the integration of devices into the grid could increase the profitability of storage projects.

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Decarbonisation of heat and transport will cause congestion issues in distribution networks. To avoid expensive network investments, demand flexibility is necessary to move loads from peak to off-peak periods. We provide a method and metric for assessing and selecting the optimal demand response strategy for a given network congestion scenario and applied it to a case study network in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. We proposed a Price Approximation/Mean Grouping strategy to deal with the issue of congestions occurring at the lowest-price period in real-time pricing schemes. The Mean Grouping strategy increased the average lowest-price hours from 1.32 to 3.76. We show that a three-cluster tariff is effective in solving medium congestion issues in Northern Ireland and could save consumers an average of £117/year on their heating bill. However, for networks with low headroom suffering from serious congestion issues, a smart control strategy is needed.